I read somewhere that they can be grown from seed, but it would take a very dry place that gets full sun. I see them on south-facing, rocky hillsides and there are usually a few in sandy areas on the river bank.

The “Skyrocket” name is a good one, isn’t it! The blossoms are atop long stems and their weight makes the stem bend over somewhat, making the flowers look like rockets as they reach the height of their travel.

Such beauties. And I very much like the way you have them framed against that “dark sky”! I did have to smile at that top photo. It reminds me a bit of some decorations I have for another holiday – Christmas poinsettias made of crab claws. The ornaments aren’t as pretty as your flowers, but the shapes certainly echo each other.

I guess in the top photo they do look like a Christmas decoration, perhaps on a package. It’s a little unusual for this flower to produce groups of blossoms like that, at least in my experience with them, but they do create all kinds of different looks.

The dark background on these was mostly because the light was quite dim (heavy clouds) and my camera doesn’t do well in low light conditions. So I use flash and dial it down to a low level and with a very shallow depth of field the lens doesn’t “see” much background.

Hi Montucky, I am oohing and aching over your gorgeous series of floral photographs! Excellent! I thought of your work when I was trying to shoot pictures of flowers in Yellowstone days ago when I was there. Hard for me due to the long lens I perpetually use. Have a wonderful coming week!

I only came across these a few times up in the Wasatch…even found some that were white to light pink in color…don’t know if they were just older blooms or if they were another phenotype or even another species altogether. Nice photos, Terry.

[…] Outdoors and noted that I had some images that were similar to his recently posted photographs of Skyrockets. I thought I remembered seeing some in white and pink, but could only find these in pink. They […]